“We are forced to respect the gifts of nature, which study and fortune cannot give.”
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 180.
The Rambler, No. 150 (Sat 24 Aug 1751). http://www.yalejohnson.com/frontend/sda_viewer?n=106855 See also The Yale Book of Quotations, Samuel Johnson 3 (2006)
“We are forced to respect the gifts of nature, which study and fortune cannot give.”
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 180.
“Loss is nothing else but change,and change is Natures delight.”
Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Ancient Rome
“Neither the gifts nor the blows of fortune equal those of nature.”
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 180.
“To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.”
William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing
Source: Much Ado About Nothing
“Among all the studies of natural causes and reasons, light most delights the contemplators”
John Peckham (1227–1292) Archbishop of Canterbury
Perspectiva communis, translated by, and appearing in the notebooks (C.A.<sub>543r</sub>) of Leonardo da Vinci, as quoted by Martin Kemp, Leonardo Da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man (2006) p. 112.
Context: Among all the studies of natural causes and reasons, light most delights the contemplators; among the great things of mathematics, the certainty of its demonstrations most illustriously elevates the minds of its investigators; perspective must therefore be preferred to all human discourses and disciplines, in the study in which radiant lines are expounded by means of demonstrations and in which the glory is found not only of mathematics, but also physics: it is adorned with the flowers of one and the other.
“The civility which money will purchase, is rarely extended to those who have none.”
Charles Dickens book Sketches by Boz
Our Parish, Ch. 5 : The Broker’s Man
Sketches by Boz (1836-1837)
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi
Volume 1, p. 191
The Prophets (1962)
Samuel Richardson book The History of Sir Charles Grandison
Vol. 1, letter 36.
Sir Charles Grandison (1753–1754)